Inkjet printers that perform printing by intermittently ejecting ink are known as recording apparatuses for recording images onto various types of media (media to be printed), including paper, cloth, and film. In such inkjet printers, an operation in which a medium is carried in the paper carrying direction (also referred to as “sub-scanning direction”) and an operation in which ink is ejected from nozzles that are moved in the scanning direction (also referred to as “movement direction” or “main-scanning direction”) are repeated alternately to form dots on the medium.
It is desirable for such inkjet printers to have a large number of nozzles so that the recording speed is increased. However, simply increasing the number-of nozzles makes it difficult to produce a head. Thus, it has been proposed that the number of nozzles is increased using a configuration in which a plurality of nozzle groups are provided in a head (for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. H10-323978).
When a plurality of nozzle groups are provided in a head, it is desirable that there is flexibility in the setting of the spacing of the nozzle groups. Moreover, it is preferable that the same head can be adopted for a plurality of recording modes.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to increase design flexibility when a plurality of nozzle groups are provided in a head.